? HR complaint for hostile work envt

[Anonymous]

Say a senior leader ran a research group that took in college students for training. The students are paid a stipend. On the end of the program, senior leader takes everyone out for a simple lunch at a nearby restaurant. During the conversation while seated, Student 1 (say 1 is a federally recognized race) tells the story of a former faculty who really made life hell for her in almost abusive conditions as an assistant. Student 2 (2 is another federally recognized race) remarks "I dont want to be racist but I bet that faculty is race 2" then laughs and everyone laughs. Senior leader laughed with them to be polite.

Weeks pass, and apparently Student 3 from a different race then 1 or 2, reports the group to HR for hostile work environment. Note that Student 2 made fun of own race, not student 1 or 3's race.

If senior leader agrees to dei training, will this all just go away?! Any way to fight this?

[Anonymous]

One comment like this, while not great, is unlikely to create a hostile work environment in a legal sense.

Are you the senior leader? What is there to fight?

Unless the senior leader has a history of racist remarks and has made decisions based on race (or is perceived to have made decisions based on race), this will likely amount to a slap on the wrist. Unless the company wants to get rid of senior leader anyway.

[Anonymous]

Senior leader should be a, you know, leader and not laugh at students' racist jokes.

[Anonymous]

Stop working with young people. Stop any form of socializing at work. Eff this work environment and eff this culture for giving children all this power.

[Anonymous]

Based on all the EEO training I had, this sounds like a scenario right out of the training. If a person overhears something that made them uncomfortable, they can report it.

Was the senior leader offered the opportunity to take training as a remedy? They should take it, but if nothing has happened so far, nothing may happen. It will be investigated.

My experience is that there are a lot of reports, but investigations don't always lead to disciplinary action or any action at all. The behavior has to meet certain criteria (pervasive may be one term; there is official language but I can't quote it) for it to rise to disciplinary action and a one-time event may not rise to the level.

I've seen both happen and disciplinary action was for behaviors that were egregious and happened much more than once.

[Anonymous]

lots of things are reported but from an HR pov the concern is to protect the company from being sued. There to me is no way that this circumstance would warrant a successful lawsuit and would be likely to be termed 'frivolous' by any judge. The best course of action would be for the company in question to either add a module to existing compliance training or add a new training for everyone. no need to target the person in q.

[Anonymous]

Yes, do the training, be sincere, and it’ll be done. A valuable learning opportunity for you about the DEI pitfalls that are out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lots of things are reported but from an HR pov the concern is to protect the company from being sued. There to me is no way that this circumstance would warrant a successful lawsuit and would be likely to be termed 'frivolous' by any judge. The best course of action would be for the company in question to either add a module to existing compliance training or add a new training for everyone. no need to target the person in q.

From a different HR POV, I think this does pose some risk. You want to show that you recognize issues and are proactively offering training and also offering remedial training. I don’t think this rises to the level of a problem if it’s a single incident. But if this employer has a lot of these types of complaints it can result in adverse consequences.

Based solely on what was said in this post and presuming no other complaints about the professor, training is probably sufficient to make this go away.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean by “federally recognized race”? Reverse discrimination is still illegal.

[Anonymous]

HR here - unless tangos senior leader has a pervasive history of making inappropriate comments, the bar isn’t high enough for a “hostile work environment”. Senior leader will likely be told to complete a refresher training and not do it again.

[Anonymous]

I think Student 3 should reflect on whether reporting this to HR was an appropriate/proportionate response to this situation. Another option for Student 3 would have been to address it with the group at the time, if Student 3 felt uncomfortable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Senior leader should be a, you know, leader and not laugh at students' racist jokes.

Oh please. Isnt it like a black person calling someone the n-word isnt racist?

[Anonymous]

This reeks of trolling. There's no such thing as a "federally recognized race" for Title VII purposes.

[Anonymous]

Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Depends on the culture at your workplace: I would try to persuade HR that this was not a racist incident. I would also remove student 3 from any hiring consideration, and not give them a good reference (diplomatically, of course). We need fewer idiots in the workplace.

Please do not give advice, ever. You just encouraged OP to retaliate against student 3 for making a discrimination claim. This is a clear violation of antidiscrimination laws. Someone making a discrimination claim, regardless of whether the claim is well founded, is protected against retaliation for making the claim. This is really basic shit.